Tegra Helps Developer Hit a Hole in One with RU Golf THD

Golf can be a very visual experience. One of the more popular sports in the world, developer nutgee Inc. has made the most of today’s mobile computing power with RU Golf THD. The game, which features high resolution 3D textures, was built specifically to take advantage of NVIDIA Tegra-powered devices by incorporating cool effects such like lens flare, motion blur and realistic water. The game offers a suite of single and multiplayer modes with the ability to customize everything from avatars to clubs. Soulkey Kim, CTO, nutgee Inc., talks about what’s in store for mobile gamers with this arcade take on the sport in this exclusive interview.

How did you work with NVIDIA on RU Golf THD?
We wanted to provide a game with lovely graphics and game characters. We had seen the limitations of mobile device performance, which was a very prominent question in our mind. However, we met NVIDIA and they were able to solve this problem.

What has NVIDIA provided that has helped with development?
NVIDIA has provided sample devices, documents and engineering support, which has allowed us to develop console-like games for mobile.

How does your game make use of the latest Tegra technology?
We’ve used camera bloom effects, lens flare, motion blur, real water simulation, normal bump maps and higher resolution texture maps for this Tegra version. Tegra API can incorporate those features, which we wanted to make for our game.

How does this impact the gameplay experience?
Many users told us that our game looks like a console game. We were very happy when we heard that and also delightful to provide high-end PC, or console-like games to gamers on mobile devices.

What are the challenges of developing for Android devices today? How does NVIDIA help with this?
Usually optimizations and buffering from rendering are always obstacles, but we didn’t have those issues with Tegra devices.

Can you talk about the gameplay experience and how consoles have inspired you?
We have developed PC games before and love PC games. However, we have seen the game industry move to mobile games, so we moved to develop mobile games. Mobile games can provide mobility, easy access and fun gameplay for many people, which was very attractive for us to start in mobile game development.

What are your thoughts on what can be done with tablet gaming today?
For a while ago, people usually can play games at home, but mobile gaming gives everyone’s game life easier. With recent Project Shield announcement from NVIDIA, I believe gamers can enjoy any game in anywhere.

What were your goals heading into this game?
Our goal is to provide easy-to-play games to everyone, but with high-end graphics and technologies. Everyone can enjoy, but want to provide visual experiences as well.

What does your title bring new to the genre?
We wanted to provide easy control so everyone can enjoy games on mobile devices very easily. To differentiate from other golf games, we focus on near-pin style golf rules so anyone can play very easily. Also, we support game controllers with high-end graphics, TV connections so users can feel they’re playing console-games. It will be enjoyable with TV connection+game controller play as well as mobile devices when people move.

Can you talk about the story and the game universe?
To become a golf master, user needs to compete with other players.

What are some of the environments players will engage in?
We focused play-time should be short so people can enjoy and play when they are on move. We also provide various in-game items, cute characters and various maps.

How is this game different from others?
Cute art style, various customizing and real-time competition (online) are main differentations.

What do you think tablet gamers will really like about this title?
Tablets and smartphone are having bigger and bigger screens and users also want to play their mobile games on TV. With our high-end graphics and high resolution support, people can enjoy games on TV.

How do you see tablet gaming evolving over the next five years?
Online games on mobile devices and more gamers want more high-end mobile games. Cloud gaming will be also very interesting area we want to see how it’s going to be.